Short-term planning


Using the Cambridge Early Years Teaching Resource

The activities in the Cambridge Early Years Teaching Resource are designed to support your short-term planning. You will just need to consider how you will use or adapt the activities most effectively with your own children and in your own setting.

Cover of Cambridge Early Years Learner's Book 1A


Things to think about during short-term planning

Consideration

Ask yourself:

1. Providing balance of opportunities that support a play-based approach.

  • Are there enough opportunities for child-initiated play?
  • How might we build on child-initiated play to develop learning towards the learning statements? (guided play)
  • Are the adult-led activities playful? Could they be less adult-led?

2. How adult-led activities will be organised. 

  • For whole-class activities, how will we involve all children?
  • Will each child have appropriate adult guidance across each day?
  • Will small group activities be disruptive to other children?
  • Are there outdoor opportunities as well as indoor opportunities?
3. The curriculum learning statements that will be developed

  • How do the activities and opportunities develop learning towards the learning statements? 
  • Are we developing skills as well as knowledge and understanding, including mathematical and scientific thinking skills?
  • Is there a balance of learning across curriculum areas each day?
4. Resources

  • What do we need to prepare in advance?
  • What extra resources might help us to provide support or challenge?
5. Key vocabulary

  • What vocabulary do children need to achieve the learning statement?
  • What vocabulary do children need to access an activity (e.g. to understand a story)? 
  • What vocabulary might be new to some or all children?
  • What vocabulary will we need to model most carefully?
6. Adult input

  • Where will I focus my input and observations? 
  • How can other adults in the setting develop learning most effectively?
7. Opportunities for continuous assessment

  • How will we know if a child has achieved the learning statement? 
  • What will we look out for? What questions will we ask? What misconceptions might we need to address?

See Assessment guidance for more guidance on assessment, including recording your children’s progress.
8. Ideas for support and challenge

  • Are the activities and opportunities inclusive? Do they enable all children to participate and succeed? 
  • How will we identify when a child needs more support or challenge? 
  • How will we ensure appropriate challenge? 
  • How will we provide support when a child needs it? 

See Inclusive learning for more guidance.


Things to think about after teaching and learning

It is very useful to reflect on and evaluate your activities and opportunities. It will inform your future short-term planning. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

      • How did our planning help us to respond to each child’s needs? What changes did we make from the plan? Why?
      • What did each child achieve today? What progress did they make?
      • Are we ready to move on? If not, which learning statements do we need to revisit with all or some children? If we are ready, what is the next step for progression?
      • Is there anything we need to remember when using this activity with other children?